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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-11 Daily Xml
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Adult Safeguarding Unit

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (15:16): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding safeguarding South Australia's most vulnerable.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: On 18 May, the Marshall Liberal government established an independent Safeguarding Taskforce to examine current gaps in oversight and safeguarding for people living with disability in South Australia. The task force's final report, which was released on 3 August, identified 14 safeguarding gaps and made seven recommendations, which were all supported by the Marshall Liberal government.

The state government immediately moved to action the recommendations that fall within state responsibility, including moving forward the expansion of the Adult Safeguarding Unit's scope to include adults living with disability to 1 October 2020 instead of 2022. Can the minister please provide an update on the expansion of the Adult Safeguarding Unit?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for her excellent question. It does give me great pleasure to provide an update in relation to some of the data in relation to the Adult Safeguarding Unit. I also pay tribute to members of the task force and many members of the community who contributed to the task force's initial and final reports to advise both the state and commonwealth governments on ways in which we could all improve safeguarding for vulnerable people, particularly people with disabilities.

As the honourable member has articulated, the Adult Safeguarding Unit had been in place for older South Australians and, as a result of the recommendations of the task force, it was expanded to include younger people with disability earlier than had initially been anticipated. The Adult Safeguarding Unit had a cross-agency working group in the lead-up to the launch on 1 October to advise it on all the things that needed to be considered in relation to the expansion of the unit.

So a public awareness campaign commenced on 1 October entitled Speak Up! to publicise the increased legal mandate of the ASU and to encourage people to call the SA Abuse Prevention Phone Line for advice, support or to make a report of suspected or actual abuse or neglect. Social media channels were utilised to advise of this, and a fact sheet has been developed by the Adult Safeguarding Unit in consultation with the working group to improve community awareness of current referral pathways for reporting suspected abuse and neglect and the legislative changes that were taking place from 1 October. That sheet has been uploaded on the websites of all working group members, which includes human services, and was also launched on the Inclusive SA website.

During the period 1 October to 31 October, the Adult Safeguarding Unit received a total of 192 phone calls to the SA Abuse Prevention Phone Line, which was an increase of seven from the same period last year. Of those, 35 calls were disability related. The Adult Safeguarding Unit confirmed that for 12 calls that were received, no further action was required. Investigation often revealed complex family situations, with members having limited capacity to navigate the National Disability Insurance Scheme systems, resulting in a person's support needs not being met.

Other instances were the result of inquiries seeking further information about where to report NDIS providers. The 17 active reports represent matters open for investigation and some where safeguarding plans are currently being reviewed. I thank all members of the community who have contributed to this important social reform.

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